Toilet Training

I know, I know you are wondering why I am discussing such a topic when I have school age boys who are both toilet trained...?
Well they are both daytime trained but we still have issues with night time.
I am one who has never been worried about night time training, I know it is a process we have to go through but I also know that their body has to have the ability to wake them in order for them to know they need to go when a sleep.
If their body doesn't wake them then how can you growl and scream at them for yet another accident or even how can you run a rewards chart for every morning they are dry and then punish them for the mornings they are not??

Ben was close to 6 when he was stopped wearing pullups, Grandma noticed that when staying with her he would immediately use the toilet when waking and his pullup was dry. So off came the pull up and no worries since. We have had the odd accident but nothing to write home about. In fact it was an amazing feeling when he appeared at the bottom of the stairs one night over a year ago and annouced he needed to wee.
I sat there thinking "thank you, at least now he wakes when needing to go, problem solved"

Alex on the other hand, well he is the child that announced when 3 that he was no longer wearing nappies during the day, 2 weeks later he was dry (took us 5 months with Ben). He would also have loved to have gone nappyless at night but I wasn't ready for that just then.
Several times he announced that he was no longer wearing pullups at night and several times after trying for 5 nights and having been wet for 3 of them then we have said no, we will wait a little longer.
He was always wet at different times as well, sometimes I would find him in a wet bed at 10.30pm sound asleep, very difficult to night train someone who manages to sleep through it all.
Othertimes it would be 3am or 5am that he would wake us to say he was wet.

About 2 months ago we noticed that just about every morning his pullup was dry, so we instigated a no pull up rule and away we went. I expected a few accidents along the way but every 5-6 days is hard work.
Again it is always at different times, 11pm, 3am, 4am, 5.30am.
I am not sure if he wakes because he is wetting or if he is waking because he is wet?

We have tried limiting his fluid intake after a certain time.
We ensure he wees prior to going to bed.
But so far we can find no rhyme or reason for this continual wetting that seems to be happening apart from the fact he is on school holidays and getting a lot of fresh air and obviously is just so tired each night that he is sleeping so soundly!

However we are now at the stage where we have to perserve and just go with it.
The lucky part of it all at present is that we are in the middle of summer and getting the washing done each time is easy.

If you have any suggestions or tips then we would love to hear them.....?

Night Training Update

As you may have read, Alex decided on Saturday that he no longer wanted to wear nappies at night!
At 3 1/2 I was not so sure, but hey, game for anything at this stage.
Results so far are this:

Saturday - dry all night
Sunday - we woke him at 11pm to change him and the wet bed! He had slept through it.
Monday - dry all night
Tuesday - he woke me at 5am because the bed and him were wet.
Wednesday - he woke me at 1.30am because the bed and him were wet.

I have done more washing of sheets in the last 4 days than I have ever done in one week. Luckily for us it is summer and they are drying on the line ready for the evening.
I honestly do not think he is ready to be dry at night as he has no idea when he wants to go at night and he is waking up after the fact, it is not waking him!

Plus the fact I really need a good nights sleep and so does he, so I think I might have to wrestle with him tonight to have a nappy on because I need to sleep! I have been working full time this week and it is beginning to show in the family that we are all tired, so a good nights sleep would be benificial to all.

Nappies

When Grandma was staying with us at the caravan, she talked to Ben about how he was big enough now to not have to wear nappies at nighttime.
I think this sunk into his head somewhere?
Well if it didn't sink into his head it sure sunk into his little brothers! Alex annouced last night that he was not wearing nappies to bed anymore!

Now as you may remember from here, Alex is good at annoucing something and then sticking to it. It is exactly what he did when he decided he wasn't wearing nappies during the day anymore.
SO I actually agreed to go with this as I have a feeling it will work.
So off he went to bed last night, no nappy on, a quick trip to the toilet before going upstairs, juice in hand as normal because I am not changing things, oh and a bed wetting cover had been placed on the bed under the sheet.

I can report today that we had a dry night. Yea for us.
He came into me twice last night to snuggle and each time I did ask him if he needed to go and each time he replied 'No'
This morning when he got up he apparently went straight to the bathroom and did his business.

Will keep you posted on how the week goes, but at least it is summer time and the sheets will dry easy. Now we just have to slowly work on Ben and see if he fancies the idea? Although I am in no hurry and I am not going to force the issue, when he is ready it will happen.
Although the real bummer of it all is that we had just gone grocery shopping yesterday and I had just brought a new packet of Alex size nappies!

Horse Training in the Future

High-tech horse training buggy today, bionic horses tomorrow

Sometimes the power of one horse is all you need — especially if that horse is one you're looking to train and keep tabs on. The Roush horse buggy lets its operator do just that, providing them with a steady stream of information about the animal's well-being, all the while trotting and galloping the horse at different speeds in a controlled manner, up to almost 40 mph. The cabin is mercifully motorized, and (as if the horse didn't have enough of a burden) it holds three: a driver, trainer and a vet.

The cabin, which is mounted rearward of the horse, includes a centrally mounted drivers seat.

On board systems include 12-volt and 240-volt electrical supplies, to power systems such as computerised heart, blood oxygen and fitness monitoring. All this just for the horse!
Roush Technologies developed the buggy for horse-and-camel training equipment company Kurt Systems out of Turkey. Is this a bold new age for training super-horses or, like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV, will technological might still get trumped by an underdog horse with some heart? Roush expects the vehicle to enter production soon.

What will they come up with next??

Maybe someone will come up with something like this for people training for the olympics! Wonders never cease to amaze me!

Training Alex

This is going slowly but surely.
Daycare have been helpful through the week and we are now only having nappies in use occassionally.
Running around with nothing on seems to be working well, but doesn't help that we are now in winter so therefore not the warmest time to do that sort of thing.

He is slowly getting the idea of when he wants to go and therefore we are succeeding well.

Oh well onwards and upwards, can't expect to have it achieved within a week, but then 2 would be nice!